Leaked Audio Suggests Iranian Regime Struggles With Reality
A speech by a man who is said to be an official of the Islamic Republic’s intelligence ministry suggests that the regime is in panic about opposition it faces.
A speech by a man who is said to be an official of the Islamic Republic’s intelligence ministry suggests that the regime is in panic about opposition it faces.
The audio recording leaked to media, which is full of bizarre remarks, seems to be from a session in which the unnamed speaker is talking about the nationwide protests that have not died down since September.
Echoing conspiratorial propaganda by the regime’s authorities, the speaker blamed other countries for the protests, saying that a select group of protesters had been trained in the US bases in the region.
It appears that the orator is addressing a group of regime loyalists and his strange remarks give the impression of an almost desperate attempt to convince regime insiders that they are besieged by conspirators – an at one point in the speech – even by mythological beings.
He presented no evidence and did not explain how large protests formed is, as he says, only a handful were trained to foment unrest.
“They selected special people from among them and took them to private [social media] channels and taught them urban warfare, for example making grenades,” he claimed, adding that "Among these special people, they chose even more special people and took them to the American bases in Jordan, Turkey and Erbil and trained them."
The intelligence ministry’s official made more bizarre claims, saying that the "training sessions" of these people in the American bases were "mixed-gender and they were provided with sexual attractions, drugs and alcohol."
He added that celebrities and influencers were taken to US bases in Turkey, where they signed contracts in dollars and euros to fight against the regime.
He went on to say that during the protests out of every 200 people, five people were trained by the US. “In these five-member units, one person was in charge of chanting slogans, one person gathered people, one person killed security forces, one person set fire to a place, and one person broadcast the events live on Iran International and BBC,” he added. Following the escalation of protests across Iran, internet access was shut or slowed down regularly and no live broadcasts happened from inside the country.
He also claimed that in the Iranian province of Kordestan "17,000 men and women” trained by Kurdish nationalist groups planned to attack five cities in the province. The Al-Ahwazi Arab Popular Democratic Front (APDF) also planned to launch an armed rebellion and attack the city of Ahvaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan in southwest Iran, the official told his audience.
He also claimed that members of Jaish ul-Adl -- a Salafi Islamist militant organization that operates mainly in southeastern Iran – also sought independence in Sistan-Baluchestan province. He said that similar attacks were also planned by Iran’s Pan-Turkists. "The enemies worked for years on Pan-Kurdism, Pan-Turkism, Pan-Arabism and Pan-Baluchism,” he said.
Amid all these, the official did not explain how Iran’s multiple intelligence organizations missed all the preparations by alleged enemies and why there was no evidence of protesters taking up arms.
Going to the realm of fiction, he said that “jinns” or malevolent mythological creatures also played a role in the current wave of protests. Jinn – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic culture and beliefs. “These jinns enter the bodies of unfaithful people and possess them,” he said, adding that during meetings with Islamic experts they found out that reciting the Quran and Islamic call to public prayer can scare them away. “Satellite dishes must be removed from homes because households that have satellites are frequented by evil jinns,” the official said.
“I received a hijab warning text message! I swear by God that I was alone in the car!” former reformist vice-president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi tweeted Tuesday.
Abtahi who is a cleric jokingly said the police surveillance cameras had warned him for not donning his turban, but he didn’t know what to do because people try to toss his turban when he wears it.
“I got a text message warning me to abide by hijab rules. I think the surveillance cameras are unable to distinguish between men and women. The Chinese [surveillance equipment and software] are apparently the reason for that. They are too modern!” a male tweeter user said Tuesday with the hashtag NoToCompulsoryHijab and an image of the text message he had received.
“Dear citizen, respecting the hijab law and abidance by it is necessary as any other law,” a text message sent en masse to cell phone holders by the police in the past few days reads.
Khabar Online said official statistics indicate that there are over 141m sim cards in active use in the country. Iranian media say sending the said text messages has entailed a cost around 2 trillion rials ($40,000) to the police.
In the past few weeks, hardliner government officials, lawmakers, and clerics have also demanded that businesses refuse serving hijab-less women.
Opposition to compulsory hijab has grown hugely in the past few years. Apparently in a bid to lessen the direct engagement of the police against women and to avoid escalating the situation to protests as in September last year, authorities have been trying to shift the responsibility of enforcing hijab rules to businesses.
Punishment of businesses, including cash fines and closure, for hijab infringements by their customers has a long history in the Islamic Republic but this level of strict warnings and threats which puts great pressure on the retail and hospitality sectors at a time of economic hardship is unprecedented.
Some legal and Sharia experts say measures making businesses responsible for enforcement of hijab rules are not justified, even according to Sharia.
Mohsen Borhani, an Islamic law expert and lawyer, argued in a tweet that nowhere in Sharia one can find reasons to justify the ban on selling commodities to hijab-less women or to shut down a shop if a hijab-less woman is spotted there. “You neither abide by the law, nor the Sharia. It’s flustering!” he tweeted Tuesday.
Some Iranian politicians including former President Hassan Rouhani have repeatedly suggested holding referendums on “important issues”, which may include hijab in the current circumstances, to give the power of decision to the people. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, however, has ruled out the possibility of referendums despite the Islamic Republic’s own constitution.
“[Who says] the country’s various issues can be put to referendum? Where in the world do they do that? [Who says] all the people participating in a referendum have the faculty of analyzing that matter? What kind of demand is that?” he said Tuesday at a meeting with some students.
Defying hijab rules has turned into a form of civil disobedience. Many women have been sharing their photos taken in public places without hijab to prove that they have not given up despite the threats and harsher measures adopted recently.
The ultra-hardline Kayhan newspaper whose chief editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, is appointed by Khamenei claimed Monday that these images were “forged”.
During a joint press conference with Israel’s Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel, who is hosting Pahlavi, in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Pahlavi said that Iranians are the extreme opposite of the country’s current rulers, and that the regime does not represent the Iranian nation.
He added that Iranians are thrilled to see the son of their last shah is spreading the message of peace with Israelis on their behalf. “They have no antagonism to any nation or any faith,” Pahlavi said.
“I know that Iranians and Israelis see how important it would be for our future to be strategic partners, to work together, to address many issues. I come here to convey this message to Israeli citizens,” he said.
As he was welling up and holding back tears, Pahlavi said, "The amount of affection and emotions demonstrated by the Iranian Israeli community, but also regular Israeli citizens, has been overwhelmingly warm and welcoming, and it has affected myself and my wife very much... What you see in me is not just me, it’s millions of voiceless Iranians who feel the same emotions being in captivity, in repression.”
He noted that the Islamic Republic brought the situation to the point “when once a proud nation has been faced with the designation as a terrorist nation.”
Pahlavi then talked about the prospects of peace and calm in the region when the Islamic Republic collapses. “Imagine a different Iran, not ruled by a religious dictatorship, but [what] a secular democratic Iran could mean for our region, for stability and how it would impact the world positively,” he said.
He also enumerated some of the negative impacts of the Islamic Republic on the globe “from the nuclear threat, to spread of Islamic radicalism, and support for terrorism.”
He said he is in Israel “to explore how we can cooperate in helping the Iranian people in their campaign for freedom,” referring to the “Women, life, liberty” movement. He described the uprising as “the first modern day – or all time perhaps" women-led revolution.
He also reiterated that he is not seeking the throne in the future of Iran but only wants to help the people of the country to establish a constituent assembly and hold a referendum.
Referring to the 2020 US-brokered Abraham Accords aimed at normalizing relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Pahlavi also expressed hope for a “Cyrus Accord” for peace between Tehran and Jerusalem.
While Pahlavi was promoting peace with the Israelis, Islamic Republic’s President Ebrahim Raisi threatened to destroy the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa in an inflammatory speech in Tehran on Tuesday.
During his stay, Pahlavi visited the Wailing Wall and attended the ceremony to mark Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem. He also met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog in the past two days.
Netanyahu, in his opening remarks at the Remembrance Day event, pointed to the similarities between the Islamic Republic and the Nazis, saying that Israel’s victory in the future requires constant determination and fight against those who seek to kill Israelis.
“That is why we firmly fight any nuclear agreement with Iran, which would pave its way to nuclear weapons,” he said, adding that “Those who seek to wrap us in a stranglehold of terror will encounter an overwhelming response.”
The prince and Minister Gamliel also visited Sorek desalination plant Wednesday evening, as part of Pahlavi's intention to learn about how Israel is coping with the challenge of water, given a crisis in Iran.
In 2021, large-scale water protests took place in Iran, with several people killed and hundreds injured by security forces. Water reservoirs are at an all-time low, threatening nationwide rationing soon, local media and officials say.
Relations between the government and Iranian artists have been strained since last September when anti-regime protests began and hurt the official propaganda plans for the anniversary of the Islamic revolution in February.
As musicians, film and theater artists refused to take part in the Fajr Festivals that mark the anniversary, the regime's image was badly damaged particularly in front of the foreign guests the government had invited to Tehran.
Esmaili said that the Culture Ministry can arrange jobs for the artists on the condition that they repent. Some observers have charged that what the Culture Ministry is doing with the artists is like what the government did to political prisoners in the 1980s by forcing them to incriminate themselves and their colleagues.
Esmaili denied that the Ministry has a list of artists who are not allowed to work in Iran because of their support for the protest. However, he acknowledged that the Iranian Judiciary does has such a list.
Tens of Iranian journalists, musicians, as well as film and stage actors were arrested and jailed either for supporting the protesters or for taking part in acts of protest. This included female artists who took off their compulsory hijab in public.
Most of the actors, including the highly prominent actress Katayoun Riahi have been released from jail but judicial cases have been fabricated so that they would fear arrest any moment. The government uses looming jail sentences to keep the artists under control. Some artists including rap singer Toomaj Salehi are still in jail after several months.
Esmaili claimed: "We will do our best to return the repenting artists to the arms of the nation and resume working." However, similar experiences following unrest in the aftermath of the 2009 disputed presidential election showed that artists who bow to the regime would not be welcome by the society.
Esmaili also threatened artists by saying, "Those who are not compliant with the ideals of the Iranian nation will be treated differently." It is obvious that by "the Iranian nation" he meant the regime.
The Trade Union of Iranian Film Artists (The House of Cinema) had announced earlier that some 100 figures are facing restrictions imposed by the government. Many of those artists are barred from travelling abroad. The travel bans have been intensified after Iranian actor and TV celebrities including Hamid Farrokh Nejad, Ehsan Karami and Borzou Arjmand joined the foreign-based opposition after leaving the country.
The government was forced to release actresses under international pressure, as nearly all major film festivals in Europe condemned the arrests. The culture minister said late last year that they can engage in businesses other than acting in the movies, which meant that the actresses are barred from working.
The minister further said that actresses who have removed their hijab have in fact chosen not to obey the laws.
Stage director Qotbeddin Sadeqi told reporters in Tehran that the situation of stage artists is catastrophic. He said, "None of them has a job. The plays that are allowed to go on stage are not popular and most of those who go to theaters are friends and colleagues invited by artists to watch the show for free."
Film Critic Ali Mosleh told Iran International TV that during the protests, the minister used to beg the actresses to return to work, but he is now threatening them as the government believes the protests have ended. He added that none of the protesting artists have retreated from their positions during the past months.
Meanwhile, the head of Iran's state television Payman Jebelli has said that some artists and TV personalities are no longer interested in working with the state television.